Arduino Based Home Electronics Labs : Basic- & Advanced-Electronics and Sensors Approaches

Abstract: Background. Engineering is incomplete without the practical knowledge so laboratories and practical experiments play a quite vital role in the study. Engineering requires both practical knowledge and skills along with theoretical background. However, new technology provides opportunity to perform experiments on distance or at home, what in current situation of COVID-19 pandemic has created a great motivation to have a deep study on distance education of Engineering. This report proposes the Home Labs for basic course in electronics. It shows  both technical and educational approaches in terms of communication between a student and instructor.  Objectives. The main objective of this project is to design and implement three  labs of dedicated to basic electronics, linear integrated circuit and sensors.  Each lab consists of five experiments. All experiments need to be accessed from home. Surveillance of lab results is one of the keys of the Home Labs, which cannot be compromised. Miniaturization of commonly used heavy lab equipment is one of the main project issue. Documentation of each and every experiment should be prepared in feasible way to help students to perform their experiments easily. The reporting template should also be easy to understand and implement. Methods. Most of the experiments apply Arduino as control unit. The microcontroller does not only control the experiments and connect it to the Internet as an element of IoT concept, but it also take responsibility for measurements and visualisation. The Arduino kit along with electronic components is owned by each student and could be handle anytime. Some extra components such as mini digital oscilloscope facilitate the experiments. Conclusions. Laboratories are the prime requirement of the Engineering Programs for developing students' practical skills. As implementation of all the experiments shows they can be done by not only real time lab equipment but also with miniaturized components. The proposed Home Lab budget was so friendly and economical compared to the campus labs. The Arduino based home electronic labs is the replica of the real time lab for the students who are doing their distance education and cannot have proper resource of the campus labs.